Gunshot residue points to officer

Hey there, time traveller!This article was published 28/1/2013 (1410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While three Winnipeg police officers had gunshot residue on them after a fleeing suspect was shot, the officer accused of the shooting had the most on him.

Alan Voth, who at the time of the shooting was a gunshot-residue expert with the RCMP and now runs his own consulting firm, told a six-woman, six-man Court of Queen's Bench jury Monday testing after the shooting found 29 samples of gunshot residue on Const. Darrel Keith Selley.

Under questioning, Voth said Selley's co-accused, Const. Kristopher John Overwater, had five samples of gunshot residue on him, while another police officer on the scene had two samples and another had none.

Voth said his RCMP employers assigned him to test the shooting victim -- something not usually done -- and found he had one piece of gunshot residue on his right hand and three on his left hand.

Later, under questioning by defence counsel Saul Simmonds, Voth admitted the testing only tells that people have gunshot residue on them, but not whether they got it from firing a gun, being where a gun is fired, or from a particular gun.

Voth also said gunshot residue can be transferred in contact between people.

Voth also confirmed if the shooting victim had made a grab for the police officer's gun, he would get gunshot residue on him.

Selley is charged with attempted murder, using a firearm and criminal negligence causing bodily harm in the shooting of Kristofer Shaun Fournier on July 16, 2007.

As well, both Selley and Overwater have pleaded not guilty to intending to wound Fornier by firing a Glock .40-calibre handgun, aggravated assault and obstruction of justice.

Court has been told Fournier, 23, was driving a stolen Yukon SUV when the pair of officers began chasing him, thinking he might have also been involved in the armed robbery of a nearby 7-Eleven store.

Fournier has testified he was driving fast through River Heights from police because he was high on meth and had cocaine in his pocket.

But Fournier told court when the vehicle spun out and he got out and started running, he heard shots and somebody allegedly yelling "Shoot him, (expletive) shoot him."

Court has been told four shots were fired, with the fourth hitting Fournier in his buttocks.

The Crown is accusing Selley of recklessly firing his weapon while chasing Fournier, while Overwater is accused of putting his own gun next to the wounded man and then claiming to other officers the suspect had made a grab for it.